… a few of my favorite things to do

by Suzanne Collins – The Hunger Games trilogy concludes in this book and, ohmygosh, what a powerful ending! The stakes couldn’t be higher for Katniss, those who love her, those who need her and her entire country. The brutality of war, the twisted perversions of the power mad, and the depths of human suffering are made all too tangible, too real as the action reaches its shocking, but somehow inevitable, climax. And the effects on Katniss, whom we have come to know and care about, are heartrending. No one should suffer this kind of loss and pain and grief. And Katniss’ real war is the one inside her: the fight to not become that against which she has been fighting her whole life.

And a word of warning (given here because no one warned me): make sure you have tissues at hand in the final chapters, even if you’ve been dry-eyed up to this point. You’ll need them.